Let's Try Again

Chapter 14: 1998

Meadow House - January 12, 1998

Frank Longbottom was up and getting ready for the day. It had now been over a year since he and Alice were healed. Although their families were wealthy, Frank's more so than Alice's, Frank did miss working.

He looked across the table at his wife and son, he loved them both so much. They had moved to the Meadow home a few months earlier because both Frank and Alice felt that Neville needed to get out of Longbottom Hall. So many bad things had happened there, including the torture of Frank and Alice, and the abuse of their son.

They had allowed distant relatives of Frank's, he thought they were his 5th or 6th cousins, to move in. When they had asked why Frank was willing to allow others to move into his ancestral home, he just said that there were to many bad memories attached to the house, it wasn't his home anymore. It never occurred to them that the memories he was actually speaking about was the abuse of his son, and not what had happened to him and his wife.

After a long talk Frank had decided to return to his job and as an auror. Alice had decided that she wanted to stay home with Neville. They had gotten a mind healer for Neville to help him deal with everything that had happened to him in his short life, but he was still more withdrawn then most kids. Neville preferred to spend his time quietly playing in the greenhouse. Alice just wanted to be there for him if he ever needed her.

Today was the day that Frank had a meeting with Amelia Bones to see if he could return to work. He really hoped he could.

Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Frank walked calmly into his old department. He had once loved working here, and hoped he would again. He was a little concerned when he heard that Rufus Scrimgeour was now the head of the aurors, but it wasn't like he could be worse than Barty Crouch. Plus, Amelia might be able to temper his worst habits.

Knocking on Amelia's door he was invited in. Seeing his old friend he smiled, they had trained together when they had been younger. He was a bit surprised to see that there was a younger man sitting in the office as well. Frank knew that he recognized this man, but he couldn't quite place him.

"Frank, it's so good to see you back in these offices. Allow me to introduce you to Kingsley Shacklebolt, he would have only been a trainee when you... Left." Amelia said, her voice going up a few octaves as she finished her sentence.

Frank smiled reassuringly at her. "Yes I do remember Auror Shacklebolt. It is a pleasure to see you again. And I must admit, I didn't realize just how much I missed this place until I came back in. Although I must admit that I'm a little confused. I thought I was here to discuss maybe getting back to work."

"There's no need for that Frank. You were always one of this offices best. I can already guarantee you that you have a job here, there is just a few things we will need to do. Since you have been out of the game for a while you will need to re-qualify for certain things, like your potion making. Kingsley has agreed to be your 'training officer' until your set to return to the field. Until then, I'm sorry, but you won't be able to work in the field on your own." Amelia told him.

Frank was surprised at just how easy it would be for him to get his job back. Re-qualifying was the least he could do. "That is more than acceptable Amelia. I'm more than happy to work with Auror Shacklebolt."

"Please, call me Kings, everyone does. Since we will be working together, you should see the file of one of the more important cases that I have been working on."

Kings handed Frank the file that they had on what had happened to Sirius. It covered everything, from Sirius's illegal arrest, to his being put into Azkaban without trial, going over his release and the interrogation that they had conducted, and ending with all the different places that Kings had searched. While Frank was going through this Amelia and Kings did a bit of their never ending piles of paperwork.